IPMAT Rohtak 2019
Easy
Harold a professional man who had worked in an office for many years had a fearful dream. In it, he found himself in a land where small slug-like animals with slimy tentacles lived on people's bodies. The people tolerated the loathsome creatures because after many years they grew into elephants which then became the nation's system of transport, carrying everyone wherever he wanted to go. Harold suddenly realised that he himself was covered with these things, and he woke upscreaming. In a vivid sequence of pictures this dream dramatised for Harold what he had never been able to put in to words; he saw himself as letting society feed on his body in his early years so that it would carry him when he retired. He later threw off the "security bug" and took upfreelance work.
The statement that 'he later threw off the security bug' means that
- Harold succeeded in overcoming the need for security - Correct. This interpretation captures Harold's decision to leave his stable job and the metaphorical 'throwing off' of his need for security, as represented by the creatures in the dream.
- Harold stopped giving much importance to dreams - Incorrect. The narrative focuses on the impact of the dream on Harold's real-life decisions, not a diminishing of his regard for dreams.
- Harold started tolerating social victimisation - Incorrect. The text indicates that Harold chose to reject societal expectations, not tolerate them.
- Harold killed all the bugs troubled him - Incorrect. The metaphor of 'throwing off' does not suggest literal violence but a metaphorical rejection of societal pressures.